“How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone”
“Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel”
“Letters from a Stoic (Penguin Classics)”

3 of these are textbooks for my next Grad Class. And 3 are recommended reads.

I’ve read and heard of the fantastic properties of Japanese macha tea. I’ve, also, seen the budget Korean kind at the store, but I wanted the Japanese real deal. I went to a major department store, where they carry finer world foods, and they didn’t have it. They told me to go to the neighborhood “insadong”. For some reason, that pissed me off. Instead, I went to the grocery store and bought the budget Korean brand. It’s ok.

Lastly, a long time ago, “The Owl” was/is studying Chinese characters. He told me about a flashcard method that’s supposed to be good for memorization. Essentially, the cards you don’t know – appear frequently. The cards you do know – appear less frequent. Well, I heard another person talk about this program and I gave it a try. The program I found is called Anki. The GUI is pretty bad, but once you learn how to use it. It works. Once or twice a day, flip thru some flashcards.

I think speed skating is my favorite sport. Korea has been showing a lot of it, since most of their medalists are from it. The skaters look bad-ass when they’re in slow motion, wearing those suits, and going around the curves. I want to see more luge, skeleton, and down hill. I missed those.

I like that sasquatch mascot.

I finished my first 2 grad classes. I go back for more in May.

I’ve been steaming carrots, cucumbers, and potatoes. I should add more vegetables into the mix.

An Irish girl said, “My father says you shouldn’t drink unless you plan to get drunk, otherwise it’s a waste of money.” It wasn’t directed towards me, but I thought, “I totally agree with you. That’s why I haven’t been drinking these days.” I consider how many yummy groceries or meals I could buy for the cost ‘a night out’.

It’s been 10 days since I started my latest homebrew. I still see signs of fermentation, so I wont bottle it yet.

I wondered if I should take a year off from tea and drink nothing but coffee.

I’m going to start a ‘Bonsai Potato’ at school. I never did started that back in Chicago.

The outside temperatures haven’t been lingering below the freezing mark. Therefore, my room has more comfortable.

I have numerous episodes of the ‘Tolkein Professor’ that I’m trying to catch up on. I also like listening to ‘Maxwell’s House.’ I’ve been watching Survivor, American Idol, Important Things,

I honestly don’t do much banking with the “Big Bank” now. My account is really just a temporary hub which I withdrawal and transfer money in and out of. I don’t do any investing or make substantial interest with their savings account. I do all this online.

However, if I had an account with a community bank. I think I would try and help it out by purchasing CD’s and loans to the bank. My hope would be that the bank uses this money to give back to the neighborhood businesses and homes, like the Bailey Building and Loan.

Maybe the “Big Bank” does substantially help out the community with home loans and business owners. I honestly don’t think they were involved in the the market crash like other “Big Banks” were. But I want some reassuring that they’re doing everything possible to help the little guys.

…

Budget $237 million
Gross revenue $1,858,866,889

Avatar is still in the #1 box office seat and hasn’t had it’s DVD sales figures yet. It gets me wondering where all this money will … go? It would be nice if it could give back to the movie industry as a whole. It would be nice to see lower ticket prices and indie movies getting wider releases. But still …

Damn. Where does all this money go?

PS – I did watch it in theaters with 3-D.

One time, in the Summer, I ate dinner with him and another professor. He was speaking Korean to order food, (and you should know that he speaks awkwardly loud, fast, and with incorrect pronunciation.) The waitress was having a hard time understanding him, but he just kept talking. At the same, the waitress was trying to explain the menu. I found it comical, and I may have snickered. Immediately he asked if I was laughing at his Korean. I said, “no”. But, I could tell he wasn’t buying it.

Later, the waitress came back to say that they were out of our order. Again, the hilarity of reordering insued, and I snickered, and he took a great offense to this. He asked, “Are you laughing at my Korean?” I wanted to just say yes, but he went on a tirade. For something so small, it struck a nerve.

He said he takes “great pride” in his Korean. He’s lived here for 19 years. He said one Italian guy laughed at his ability to speak Italian, (which he partially is) and he said, “I kill people who laugh at my Italian.”

I really couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. Was he seriously getting worked up over this? We hadn’t been drinking, so what the fuck? The second professor calmed him down, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Apparently, he has a world of baggage, so he takes anti-depressants. He’s bipolar, so he takes medication. Without his job, he has nothing. Therefore, the English professors look after him, like seriously covering his ass for anything at the university.

The professors encouraged him to enroll in this program. He should get a Masters to feel less like a “weak person”. (He likes to use this phrase when he feels like he’s being picked on) However, none of the other professors are, now, participating in the program to look after him. And I sure as hell don’t want to do it! He’s a parasite, who is incapable of surviving on his own.

I’ve been updating him on the course projects, the housing, the homework assignments, and the required textbooks … Why? Because he doesn’t check his email!

When I learned that we’d be doing group presentations for the course, I immediately signed up and made a group. Weeks later, I decided to tell him about the group presentations. He asked, “Are you in a group yet?” I said “Yeah, I picked a topic and the group is full. He replied, “It’s too bad we’re not in the same group. We could work TOGETHER!” I was like, “heh…………..yeah.”

I told him about the dormitory housing. We could get a single room or share with a friend. He said “We should room TOGETHER.” Timidly, I said, “Ok”. But, I thought that would be a recipe for disaster. I don’t want to be around this guy. A few days later, I said that I need my ‘me’ time and ‘personal space’. I told him I’d get a single room. He said, “Yea, I think I’m thinking about doing the same thing.”

Today, I majorly helped him out with the pre-course homework assignment. I held his hand, while he sent an email for the presentation topics and updated the coordinator with his housing and food choices.

At least 6 times, I’ve heard him say “I haven’t studied or had to do anything like this in 20 years.” It’s a bullshit excuse, and I want to fire back, “Well you ought to get your shit together, now!”

I could go on, but this is a good place to stop writing. I hate him.

I went through my 2009 Resolutions post from a year ago. If I think about my accomplishments. I was about half and half. A couple accomplishments came in the last few days of ‘09. Sadly, … no, I never punched any a$$holes.

I’m proud that I gave year end donations. Like 2007, it was a $20 limit. (I never donated in ‘08) Once again, I donated to Wikipedia, the EFF, Creative Commons, and $5 is still TBD.

Since, school ended I’ve been able to watch more TV – in a educational way. At 6PM, there is a show called ‘My Hometown’. Reporters visit people (typically the older generation) and follow a “life in the day of” manner. They focus on what work they do, the meals, and the home. The language is over my head, but the show highlights the Korean working class.

One time, I had a discussion with my co-teacher about Ceej’s toe shoes. At E-mart, I saw toe socks on the rack, and I said, “Hey, I’m going to buy you toe socks for X-mas!” He seemed less than enthus’d. He later explained that in Korea, toe socks carry the stigmatism that you must have ‘athlete’s foot’. I was like “Nah, they’re just cool socks.” Well, it sucks to be him, because I’m giving him toe socks.

This year, the dividends resulted in $62.69. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME! I’ve got 2K in CDs that give me a better yield than that. Ridiculous!

The computer I have in my apartment wont stop rebooting during start-up. I’m afraid I’ll have to re-install windows and lose all my videos, photos, music, and files from this last year.

Customs still hasn’t delivered my presents. GIVE ME MY STRUDELS AND DEODORANT!

Back in September, I bought 200 shares of UNG @ 13.15. The chart looked good, I thought that uNG would at least get up to the high teeeeeens … but … It didn’t. Day by day, I watched it plummit down to the 9s. That was about an $(800) loss.

In trading there is a principle called ‘Averaging Down’. At a lower price, you buy MORE shares, like 200 or 400. That way when the stock goes back up you make money. The stock doesn’t have to get back up to 13.15, but if you bought at 9 and it got to 11, your losses and gains would balance out. Weeeeeell … I didn’t do that.

UNG ran up to the 12s, and I was kicking myself. Had I ‘Averaged Down’ somewhere I could have turned my losses into gains. Instead, UNG never quite made it back to 13.15. It stagnated around 12 for a month, and then slowly crept back down. “… man.”

A month ago, it broke 10 again, and ideas of ‘Averaging Down’ floated in my mind again. Should I?; Shouldn’t I? “Ah, what the hell!” I bought 2000 shares @ 10. Balls-y, Yes! If UNG went up to 10.3, the gains and losses would have balanced out. And if UNG went up to 11. Well, I would have had $(400) + $2000 = $1600 gain! … but … instead UNG kept falling to the 8s. Now, I was cursing myself.

With 2200 shares of UNG, that’s nearly a $(4000) loss. Those red four digits were staring back at me. I started thinking about everything I could have bought with that money, particulary a new camera. For that price, I could have bought the Nikon d700 and a good lens. *le sigh*

However, after this revelation, what should happen. Since the beginning of December, UNG started to make an uphill climb. Go Baby, GO! Everyday, the Dow Jones has been inching down, but my baby UNG was going up. News of Exxon-Mobile buying shares was also propping it up. Come ON! Yesterday, it made it to 10.46. I checked it’s status and I now had a $400 gain. Praise Allah!

But, this is where greed starts to factor in. Do I hold on to it and hope it goes to 11; Could it go up to 12! Now, we’re talking a set up camera lenses!

No, Mers. NO!

Initially, I had to think back to the first UNG trade of 200 @ 13.15. I wasn’t expecting more than $100 or $200 out of this trade, and now I had that.

So, I sold it. And I think I’m done for the year.

There are maybe 7 more trading days in the year. I haven’t met my New Years Resolution of ‘Having a profitable year of trading’. Overall, I’m still down. But not by much. I think it’s time to sit back and reflect. The days are short. Another year has gone by. And, I know I’ll be buying a Nikon d700 and new lens. Merp.

The school bathrooms are cold, but fortunately there is a heater in the teacher’s bathrooms. When the heater is on, the bathroom gets warm. It is comfortable to poop and pee when the air is warm. It is a convenience.

So, why would you open the windows or turn on the ventilation fan?

Seriously, all the warm air gets sucked right out. What’s the point of having a heater, if you’re going to blow in cold air? The bathroom is clean, it’s not like it reeks of urine and feces. Dammit, stop being stupid!

There are some foreign teachers that have to teach English to the Korean teachers. I don’t do that, but if I did… Lesson 1 one would be “Were you raised in a barn?”

Occasionally, I hear foreigners talking about Thanksgiving plans, and I want nothing to do with them. One website has a list of restaurants that will serve Thanksgiving dinners. They’re all expensive and will most likely be disappointing. Eventhough, I love me some mashed taters and green bean casserole, it has to be homemade the way my family does it. The Korean interpretation would be subpar, because their idea of a Thanksgiving dinner is different than mine,… as everyone’s is.

Years ago, Black Friday was a secret kind of thing only for the early risers, who picked up the newspapers. I mean – we only had the newspapers to go on, and you only knew about the Black Friday deals the day of. It was much smaller. Now, it seems like Black Friday, is it’s it’s own holiday. Now that the secret is out, it doesn’t seem as alluring.

I have iPod headphones, but I think I want to buy a pair of headphones to keep at school. I’ve been listening to the 24 hour NPR stream at work. This week, they’ve been talking a lot about Thanksgiving food, the alternatives, and the tradition breakers.

Last week, I read that Microsoft started denying XBOX Live accounts to people using modchips. Without XBOX Live, people started selling the 360s for cheap. Since, I…well…never play online games. I thought that was interesting. If I were back in the States, I’d probably buy one of these hacked XBOXs and load it up with off-line titles.

I always watch The Ultimate Fighter. I’m looking forward to the finale, but Wikipedia shows that the coaches wont battle it out. Rampage is pulling out of the fight, because he took a movie role. Lame.

I looked at the St Rams record, 1W – 11L. Terrible… I still want to watch some football these days.

E-book readers interest me, but I dont know why. I’d only buy one if there existed an online library. I’d like to check out books for a rented period of 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, it would automatically delete or I could renew it for a small fee like $.05. For someone like me, I think a fee would be good, because it would give me an incentive to hurry up and finish the book. I could be a procrastinator or pay up. The money would then go to the online library.

BTW, I’m still reading Hyperion. It’s been over 3 months.

Today, 2 of my classes are canceled. A teacher said the students were getting lectured on the flu (again) and receiving flu shots. FLU SHOTS! I asked the teacher about he and I. Could we get flu shots? He said, “No, we have to die.” He chuckled and walked away.

I know Mom wants a Blu-Ray player for her HDTV. I dont think she’s ever watched anything truley HD on that TV, yet. I keep looking at these mini computers, because they have more flexibility. A set top Blu-Ray player is just a minimalist computer, anyhow.

Secondly, there is a flat panel TV in the lounge. I’m going to lobby to put a Nintendo Wii and Wii FIT in here. I dont care if I have to buy it myself. I would get so much pleasure, if I walked into the room and saw a group of teachers playing Wii Sports. That would be awesome! The school needs the Google-plex atmosphere. Entertainment and games stimulate activities, learning, and work.

The teaching focus just isn’t up to my standards anymore. It could be that I’m studying 2 chapters ahead of where the class is in the book. It could be that the teachers are all volunteers and don’t put their full effort into the class. It could be that the most vocal students all get on my nerves. It could be that I commute (sometimes) 2 hours into Seoul in the morning to study Korean, and I don’t want to dick around in class.

The class was useful when I was starting out, but now its not maintaining the same amount of difficulty for me. I can learn the grammar focus and vocab at home on my own. I dont want to fill out the workbook during class time. I want to spend my time practicing and using Korean in the classroom.

In 2 weeks, they are organizing a field trip for Saturday and Sunday. But the trip isn’t going to any Korean culture destinations. They’re going to a recreational site maintained by the church. The itinerary has a lot of questionable time blocks.

11:20~12:30 “Mission Impossible”
3:30~ 5:00 “We Will Rock You!”
8:00~ 9:00 “U Can Do It!”
10:20~11:30 “We Are Champions”

I’m sorry, but I wont be in attendance for this. My Saturday and Sunday free time is too valuable for whatever team building or motivational activities you have have planned.

My Korean teacher said the supervisor of the club wanted to combine two words, like bakery and coffee shop into one “cutesy” word. I said, “No, we’re not doing that.” I wont have any part in Konglish or the process of mashing words together.

He said, “Yeah, but brunch is a combined word.” I told him that brunch (though questionable) is a universally understood English word made popular by English speakers. When Korean people do it, native English speakers will snicker, because it portrays a misunderstanding of the English language.

Instead, I did a thesaurus search. I wrote down 6 appropriate words and said, “Pick one”.

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Watch on the Vimeo website for the HD version and fullscreen it.

When I drink with him and Korean people, I never speak Korean, even though he says “Mers, you should be practicing your Korean. You have to learn from the people.”

I dont speak Korean in front of him, because I can’t have a conversation without him chiding in. He always has these long winded grammar points or footnotes about Korean language to add.

One time, I was asking the waitress when her birthday was. She said (in Korean), “5 month month”, and he butted in. “See. She said month month. No one knows why they say it like that, but they do. They wont teach you that in a textbook.”

Yeah, … it’s interesting to know, but come on man. Ease off.

Well the other night, he says “Speak Korean with the waitress,” and, I obliged. Naturally, he had to jump in and say, “Mers, you’re speaking too formal. That’s what you get from the classroom. No one speaks like that. Korean people say *blahblahblah*. See. You need to get your nose out of the textbooks and classroom. Start learning on the street.”

That was when I knew I had him.

I replied, “Oh. So proper grammar isn’t important. I should just speak like they do. So, in English, I can use ‘who’ in place of ‘whom’. I can end sentences with prepositions. It’s ok for me to say “drownded” (which he called me out on one time), because that’s how I grew up speaking it.”

He came back with, “Well, what you learn in the classroom, …” and he stopped mid-thought. He stopped. His Grammar Nazi head exploded. Mers 1; You 0.

Boom. You just got fazed, Korman.

The first problem is this Wednesday / Friday class I’ve got. I’m teaching some elementary students, and I dont want to. Period. I dont want to teach the class. The students aren’t monsters; they’re actually sweet. But I dont want to be tied to this class, and I saw that happening after a couple of weeks.

I started the class not really knowing what it was. “The Godfather” set this class up, and I took the class thinking that it was part of my job or duties for the high school…. It’s not.

After a few weeks the topic of payment came up. The employers wanted to wire me the money. For that, they need my bank account and certain information. And I thought, “Nope, you’re paying in cash in a little envelope.” Later, “The Godfather” told me that the employers wanted to set up another class. Back to back. “No. I’m not a hagwon teacher for a reason, and this exactly the direction of this operation.”

Last week, I told the “The Godfather” my reasoning to quit the class. I’m busy with my own personal goals and time. The preparation and scheduling of the class is uncomfortable. He told me that this month I’d have to teach an afterschool class with the high school students. He was going to arrange the class, so that it would be Monday / Tuesday / and Thursday. He said if I quit the elementary class, I’d have to teach High school students on Wednesday and Friday.

…fine.

If you cancel the elementary class, I’ll teach the high school students M-F. He accepted, and that was that. He called the employer, and they notified the parents that the class would stop. They were dismayed, but I said farewell to the students and parents. That night I celebrated with some ddukbeoggi and makkeolli. Thursday, “The Godfather” asked if I finished the class, and I said “Yup.”

WELL… This Morning, “The Godfather” stops me in the hall, “Can you teach the Wednesday / Friday class with the employer?” MotherF$%#$#$L. “What the fuck did I tell you last week? You talked to the employer. The employer talked to the parents. The class is canceled. Fini. Why are you bringing this shit up, again?”

I obviously didn’t say this to his face or blow up at him. I pressed him with questions in my passive aggressive nature.

“What obligations do you have to this employer?” He said some of the parents had already paid for a second class. “So, the employer cant just refund the money?” He said they couldn’t do that. “My ASS they can’t refund the money.” You’re full of SHIT. “So, now you want me to teach high school students M-F, and this other class on WF. You’re a real class act. I told him I would teach the class as a favor to him, and this was the last month. As I walked away, he says to me, “You have to teach today.”

RAGE!!!!!! During my first break, I went to the gym to work of some steam.

So, to lessen the tension, “The Godfather” personally, drove me to the employer after my afterschool class with the high school students. He tells me that after this month he has to find another English teacher. *pfffff* Not my problem. It shouldn’t be your problem either. Again. “What obligations do you have to this employer?”

I had 20 minutes to kill, so I went to the convenience store. I bought some candy for the students. 10 minutes before the class, I arrived at the employer and the assistant tells me that there was no class, today. None of the students were there.

!!!!!!

And yes, I had issues with the high school students as well, but I’ll save that for another day.